First Battle

After waiting for some time, the group members started to feel tense, this was the first time they waited in one place inside the Darkness Forest. The gorilla wasn't budging from its place, even though it wasn't intelligent it could tell that the herb will be mature soon and will allow it to reach another level of strength, which is of great importance in the world of beasts where the strong devours the weak.

Two hours later a younger gorilla was running toward the big gorilla while holding some fruits and stems.

"Shoot it, Lu Min," said Ah Shu hurriedly.

Lu Min was surprised by Ah Shu's sudden demand, at first he was hesitant but seeing how serious Ah Shu was and the approaching gorilla, he gave up on persuading him and shot the little gorilla who before dying screamed so much that it alerted the big gorilla.

The big gorilla was belliwered by the sudden shout, looking at the direction where the shout came from, it screamed and ran toward the little gorilla forgetting about the herb.

"You head in the other direction, as for me I'll go now and take the herb we can't leave this opportunity. After being sure that the gorilla isn't after me I will head toward you." Said Ah Shu hurriedly in fear of wasting any time, but seeing the others not moving he started to lose composure.

"We don't have time, please trust me." Ah Shu was trying his hardest to convince them before the gorilla returned which would mean their doom.

Knowing that they didn't have much time, they left hurriedly in the direction pointed by Ah Shu, who ran toward the herb at his fastest speed.

Coming in front of the herb, he would have liked to use it himself, unfortunately, he was only at the beginning stage of the silver tier, so he plucked it and ran in another direction.

The gorilla was completely mad seeing its son die, so it screamed as high as it could. It then looked in every direction to see where the archer was, unfortunately, it couldn't see where it came from, this part of the forest was lush and full of green, so it started to listen. After a few seconds she chose a direction and started running, it was angry and wanted nothing more than to kill the archer and eat him.

Despite its size, it was fast much faster than Ah Shu, so it didn't take time for it to reach where the sound of running come from, it was a young tiger which come there looking for prey but hearing the angry screams of the gorilla, it couldn't help but feel fear, so it runs at its maximum speed, unfortunately, it was only at the peak of the bronze tier, so it was slower than the gorilla.

The gorilla knew this tiger wasn't the killer of its child, still, it wanted to release its anger. It jumped on him and started beating him, destroying his body completely. It then screamed and looked in another direction before starting to run again.

The group was running at full speed not knowing what they caused to that poor little tiger, they were worried about Ah Shu but they knew full well that their staying with him would only endanger his life.

After feeling that the gorilla wasn't following them and seeing how tired Wang Yu and Lu Fu were, Lu Min decided to stop for a little while.

Before he could say anything a wolf jumped straight toward him, fortunately, the wolf was only at the beginning of bronze tier so even though he wasn't specialized in a short-range fight he dodge it easily and punched in the head killing it to instantly.

After killing the young wolf, he was surprised to find out that they were surrounded by a pack of wolves, leading them was a big wolf at the silver tier beginning stage.

"What bad luck," said Qu Shi before taking her sword from its stealth and going toward the pack leader with Ah Du, who didn't recover fully from the last battle, still they could do nothing but fight since fleeing was impossible.

Wang Yu felt fear, but he didn't want to show it, so he took his sword and stood behind Lu Min and Lu Fu to protect their back, in case a wolf jumped while they were firing an arrow.

Lu Min was doing his utmost, sometimes firing toward the big wolf to help Qu Shi and Ah Du, otherwise, he fires the other wolf so they don't attack him and his companions. Nonetheless, after some time one young wolf was able to approach him while he and Lu Fu were and Lu Fu. Wang Yu had to fight, fortunately, the wolf was young and barely at the bronze tier, but for Wang Yu who had never fought, this was a big fight and he should be so careful.

Wang Yu put his sword in front of him, and started to approach the wolf, he knew that unless they could kill the pack leader the number of wolves that attacked them would get more, so killing was his only choice.

The wolf was also moving toward him with killing intent, suddenly it jumped toward Wang Yu who was waiting for this moment, he cut it diagonally nearly killing it, unfortunately, his strength wasn't enough and the wolf managed to beat his left arm. At that moment Wang Yu felt an imaginable pain, he had never felt it before so he started to lose consciousness, in his last moment of soberness an arrow came shot toward the wolf killing it, looking in the direction, it was Lu Fu who was running toward him.

At that moment Wang Yu's consciousness started to drift away.

"Painter Wang, everything is ready." Said an old man respectfully to a young man who had a scholarly appearance and was wearing a white robe, within his hands was an old brush.

The young man nodded his head and walked with the old man toward the emperor's hall. Strangely he was walking normally as if it was not his first time in the royal palace.

Entering the hall, the two men bowed toward an old man who was sitting on the throne despite his age. The old man had an aura that showed how different he was from other people, sitting beside him was a beautiful young girl in her early twenties.

"stand up," said the emperor.

The two men stood up, with the middle-aged man throwing a glance at the girl whom he had fallen in love with the first time he entered the palace yet he knew that with their different statues they couldn't be together, so he never proposed and kept those feelings to himself.

"It has been two years since you entered the palace, times really fly fast." Said the emperor.

"Yes it is my lord," responded the young man.

"Anyway, today is a special day. I'm going to announce an important thing, but before that, I would like you to paint me with my granddaughter."

The young man nodded his head and sat on an already prepared chair where he started drawing the emperor with his granddaughter.

While the young man was drawing the emperor, a eunuch suddenly came to the emperor and started whispering something into his ears. The emperor was getting angrier while listening to the eunuch, he then stood up and looked angrily at the young man who had stopped painting after seeing the emperor's reaction.

"Wang Yu, I've treated you well but to think you would betray me, you're a bastard, behead him"

Wang Yu stood there pulverized, he didn't understand what had happened he wanted to speak but words won't come out of his mouth, shortly after that a guard took his sword and beheaded him, all of this happened while Wang Yu didn't know why he was killed or what the emperor was going to announce.

The instant Wang Yu died, he woke up afraid and astonished. After a few seconds, he noticed that it was just a dream.

realizing that it was only a dream he finally calmed down and looked at his left arm and saw it bandaged. bizarrely he didn't feel any pain. He felt nothing from his left arm; he couldn't even lift it.

"Did you have a nightmare?" asked Qu Shi who was sitting beside him.

"It's nothing much, by the way, what happened after I lost consciousness," asked Wang Yu disheartened. He knew that after what happened to him not only had the group one less member to fight against wolves but they also had to carry for him carefully.

"You don't need to be sad, actually shortly after you lost consciousness, I broke into the silver tier. The fight then became a lot easier, so we didn't have any problems while returning."

Wang Yu could see the tiredness within Qu Shi, he knew that the process wasn't as easy as she described it to be and that she was only trying to lessen his disappointment.

"Where is Ah Shu?" Wang Yu asked.

"We couldn't wait for him in the cave, since you needed some care soon. So I used my sword to write what happened on the walls, which he had read fortunately and returned to the sect." Qu Shi was happy when talking about the return of Ah Shu from his suicidal move.

"Good, I think you should return to your room to take a rest, I can see that you're extremely tired." Said Wang Yu seriously.

"No, I'm not, beside you can't be left alone." Said Qu Shi.

"No, I don't feel any pain, and I would like to stay alone." Insisted Wang Yu.

Hearing that Qu Shi could do nothing but leave Wang Yu, she was also extremely tired and needed some rest.

After she left the room, Wang Yu sighed he hated being a burden. He wanted nothing more than to start training, unfortunately, his left arm is hurt so he can't.

Three minutes later he took his brush and started painting on the canvas with his right hand. On the canvas was the image of a young lady, swinging a sword toward a young man who dodged the attack to the right. This scene had happened during a duel between Ah Shu and Qu Shi while Wang Yu was watching them, he was hit deeply seeing the perfect attack done by Qu Shi being dodged by Ah Shu. The painting was half-finished with only some minor details and it will be done.